The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has formally placed the Italian state on trial on charges of failing to protect the life and health of 182 citizens of Taranto from the harmful effects of Ilva emissions.
The Strasbourg Court considered the evidence presented by a group of Taranto residents who filed a collective appeal to denounce the violation by the Italian State of the obligations to protect life and health as sufficiently solid. in relation to the pollution produced by Ilva. The appeal also prefigures the violation of the right to life and psycho-physical integrity by the Authorities who have not set up a regulatory and administrative framework suitable for preventing the harmful effects deriving from the pollution produced by Ilva. Finally, the violation of the right to respect for private and family life was contested, also as a result of the "save Ilva" decrees with which the Government kept the plant in operation.
